Going away.... I am on vacation!

Here I am again, ready to embark on what one author describes as "this lonely dance to uncomfortable rhythms". And yes indeed, time and again I have put up with a lot more than I usually can endure, simply to fulfil my dream of travelling the world.

As I was packing my bag yesterday night, I suddenly remembered why I hate travelling to places with winter climate. Frozen toothpaste, shampoo flowing out of the bottle in slow motion, broken skin, chipped lips, a nose ready to elope (running nose).... yet I am doing it again! All these for the sake of the highest lake on earth, to be nearer to the stars above, and for a peek of the tallest mountain... Mt Everest! Tibet, the roof of the world, I am coming to you!

In less than 5 hours, I will board a plane and head for Shanghai (before heading for Tibet). It is not for no reason that I am flying to Shanghai, which I will soon reveal. I love travelling on night flights not just because I could save on accomodation but also for the scenery that is too beautiful to be captured on photographs. Imagine, a moon that is bigger and clearer which you have never seen, stars so brightly lit that you would have thought god built street lamps in the sky. Tonight seems cloudy but when the plane rises above the thick layer of pink rain clouds, nothing could spoil the beauty and serenity of the night sky.

Pray for me that there will be good weather in Tibet. Everest, save your tear drops for another day... let there be only sun and clear blue skies, and I will be blown away... by the beautiful scenery of course and not the wind!

让我照顾你

一首很浪漫的词。 谁说爱情一定要轰轰烈烈？ 这样静静的，暖暖的， 浪漫的。。。也能很陶醉。

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By 五月天阿信

坐在我身旁你的心伤
不懂我也不想
但你的眼泪下在我心脏
回家的太阳红着眼框
心疼你的模样
影子的悲伤也变得更长
昨天谁让你受过伤
今天想要让你都遗忘

是你爱你让我变的更强
为你战斗永不投降
让我照顾你我要让雨停出太阳
我超越我自己的想象
风雨刀枪能为你挡
让我照顾你
让你未来放在我肩上

新的冷笑话巧克力糖
开始为你收藏
最近连睡觉手机也在手上
幻想着未来满头白发
公园的长椅上
你也许会说一声谢谢我
如果这一生到尽头
换你的这句话很足够

让我照顾你
为你失去生命也辉煌

New toy... Canon SLR

Well, well, I have finally decided that it is time to invest in a SLR. The sheer size of the camera has put me off for quite some time, not the mention the cost. But after looking at the photos taken from my new camera, I wish I had got it earlier.

Please allow me to present, my first shots on Canon 400D! Pardon me, I am still an amateur and exploring the various settings in the camera. As a matter of fact, I only read the instruction manual for 15 mins before I left home to take these photos. Therefore, they ain't that great but... what does it matter? Life is imperfect!


Esplanade river view


Fullerton Hotel


Merlion

I feel silly carrying this huge camera around, taking photos while resting my camera on the road side railing (to minimise shaking). Many pros were around, shooting with a tripod. I have tried to act like a tourist as much as I can to avoid embarrasement.

Anyway, I am amazed at myself for the amount of effort I am willing to put in to get nicer photos from my upcoming trip. Oh, did I mention? I will be heading for Shanghai on 18 Oct and spending 14 days in China (thinking of going to the silkroad). However, I do not have an itinery yet for the 14 days... gosh! Have I gone crazy? No, I have not. I have in fact corresponded with some Chinese guy which I met online who has gone to silkroad before. He gave me some great tips and of course the best one is... "反正记住鼻子下面就是路. 多问就行了". Oh how true! My confidence has been boosted! I am excited!

Now's the time to be engaged

I read this article from the Straits Times after I finished the whole week's reports on the situation in Myanmar. I was so touched by it that I thought I should share this article with you all. Enjoy!

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3 October 2007

Now's the time to be engaged
By Keane Shum, For The Straits Times

SIX weeks ago, before the protests in Myanmar began, I was into the 14th hour of my train ride from Yangon to Mandalay when the compartment went dark. I stared at the light bulbs and fans swaying from the carriage ceiling several times during the day, wondering if they would be operational after dusk. They were not.

But it made for a glorious night skyscape, one of the few times in my city-bred life when I have looked up at the sky and seen stars so dense that it felt like I was looking at entire galaxies.

Late that night I headed into a town with no confirmed lodging reservations and not an English speaker for miles. Hungry from munching on only bananas all day, and my back aching from a reclining seat that could not un-recline, I felt slightly disorientated. In the dark and on my own, I could not remember why people do this travelling thing, this lonely dance to uncomfortable rhythms.

The next day, the monks of Mandalay reminded me, the same way they reminded the world that Myanmar exists.

U Bein's Bridge is why I travel. It is a 200-year-old teak pedestrian bridge that stretches across a lake in the former royal city of Amarapura, near Mandalay. And it blows away the bridges of Golden Gate, Sydney Harbour, Brooklyn, whatever.


BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATERS: U Bein's Bridge (above) provides the perfect backdrop to rural life in Myanmar. It is a stage for all, from monks taking time off from their religious duties to ordinary folk just going about their business.

You name any bridge, this one is more photogenic. Because more than just making a pretty picture, it is a stage, teeming with characters acting out parts cast just for them. Life is always a bit of a show, but sometimes it picks gorgeous backdrops, and this was one of those times.

Here was this postcard sunset over a gleaming bridge on a glittering lake, and everyone was happy to be there. People who were walking through just walked on. Couples and families were there together just to be together, picnicking on life.

And the monks - the very ones later protesting - were the happiest of them all, climbing up and jumping off trees, wrestling and bathing and posing for their spanking new Japanese digital cameras. There were a couple dozen of them, and in a comforting, telling reversal of the usual backpacker request, they asked me if I could take a picture with each of them, one by one.



The kids of Myanmar are why I travel. There are loads of kids in Myanmar. It sounds basic, but it is true. According to Unicef, more than a third of the population is under 18, and it is a generation that has grown up apart from the world most of us know.

They are not unhappy kids. They squeal and run and jump and laugh and cry like any other kids do. But right now, their lives, like their taxi drivers, are racing ahead in a beat-up car without seat belts.

Myanmar's military rulers have been in control for so long - longer than any other in the world - that they know how to suppress their people without resorting to absolute barbarity. And if you want to know how the next Darfur starts, this is how. The ingredients are all here.

A crippling dictatorship that keeps itself in power and in style by exploiting the country's natural resources; violently deep ethnic divisions that have raged for centuries; endemic poverty; a forced isolation from the outside world, one with which its rulers are only too happy to comply.

And when the US says its companies and tourists should not go to Myanmar, Myanmar says 'thank you, we do not want you here anyway'.

And so this generation of kids, like the past few (it has been 45 years since the country last saw civilian rule), will grow up thinking this is how things work. There are good intentions behind the suggested travel boycott, but at some point it becomes neglect too.

Today, Myanmar is on the cusp. The military is either cracking down or breaking down. Now is not the time to antagonise the regime with more sanctions or more boycotts. Now is the time to engage Myanmar, to go there and see more, understand more and, with some luck, contribute more.

The writer is a law student at Georgetown University. He interned for the South-east Asia office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights this summer.

http://www.straitstimes.com/Free/Story/STIStory_163545.html

When I was away, something happened in Myanmar

When I travel, the picture of the world in my mind always becomes more beautiful. Being captivated by all the beautiful scenery througout my journey, it becomes somewhat easier to forget the other ugliness that exist in this same world. Obviously, it helps when I am tuning in to TV programs in a language that I do not understand and reading newspapers that contain nothing but trivial local news and reports about the stock exchanges.

While I was in Tokyo admiring the beauty of Tokyo Tower and the mountains of Hakone, the uproar and protest in Myanmar continue to rampant. When I returned home and flipped through the newspapers for the past week, I realised that the latest development of the pro-democracy protests in Myanmar hit headlines day after day.... how big scale the protests have become, how many were killed, what is ASEAN and UN doing to salvage the situation, etc. I had no idea that the country is in such dire conditions.

Myanmar came under military rule since the 1960s. It is an era synonymous with corruption, oppression and food shortage. Over the years, Myanmar's military junta did ridiculous things, including cold-blooded murder of student protestors, shooting at participants of peaceful demonstrations (for democracy), annullling results of democratic elections and putting leader of opposition party under house arrest.... One of the most significant event in recent history was the 8888 Uprising (8 Aug 1988), which was a protest led by university students in Myanmar against the military's decision to withdraw some of the Burmese currency. At that time, the General gave an order that "Guns were not to shoot upwards", implying that gun shots should be fired directly at the people. Thousands were killed as a result, pure cruelty.

Just like a hit movie will always have a sequal, the history of violence has repeated itself in Myanmar. Weeks ago, the military government in Myanmar raised the prices of fuel by 500%. This was not announced to the public, and was only discovered when car owners tried to top up petrol for their cars. Instantly, the people became alarmed and feared that escalating prices of food and other necessities will soon follow suit, thereby creating a frenzy amongst the people to stock up on daily supplies. Outraged by the military dictatorship, the monks of Myanmar started out on a peaceful pro-democracy demonstration, which subsequently developed into the bloodshed and violence we see today.

I find it hard to imagine that the Buddhist monks of Myanmar are the ones who are leading the fight against the military junta ("junta" is Spanish for committee). Buddhism is a religion that embraces compassion and tolerance. Throughout history, we have seen Christians' sacred battles, Muslims' radical activities, but violence associated with the Buddhists... I never thought this could be possible. Maybe the monks (as well as the people of Myanmar, majority of whom are Buddhists) have been suppressed too long and the anger which has built up inside their hearts just had to be released. As it is now, the familiar sights of serene Buddhist monks, clad in maroon coloured robes, were no longer visible on the streets of Myanmar, instead we see only their fury and their bodies covered with blood from being beaten and shot at by the military.

It pains me to think of what kind of life the people of Myanmar are going through now. The daily curfew and midnight arrests have instilled much fear in the people. People stay indoor most of the times not because they did not want to miss their favourite TV programs but because they were frightened. Each night, the chants of the monks, who are taken into captivity by the military, become terrifying to those who have heard. Ultimately, even the internet, international phone calls and other means of communication have been barred to stop the transmission of updates and photos of the protests within Myanmar to the outside world. Isolation seems to be the strategy adopted by the military.

Myanmar is a close neighbour of ours and it is hard to understand why the lives of people in the 2 countries are so different, when the distance is so near. While we spend all our time pursuing material pleasures, the Buddhist monks (and people) in Myanmar dedicate their lives to fight for democracy, human rights and some very basic freedom. Are we not, in relative, very fortunate? Maybe tonight is the time to say "Thank You" to our Gods above.

So what lies ahead for Myanmar? I only wish that peace will soon return to the country and that the chants of the Buddhist monks will once again be music to our ears.